Continuous medium printing apparatus

Details Continuous medium printing apparatus Continuous medium printing apparatus

2000-09-11

2001-09-18

Pendegrass, Joan (Department: 2852)

Electrophotography

Document handling

Copy

C346S136000, C347S153000, C400S613200

Reexamination Certificate

active

06292649

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a continuous medium printing apparatus which prints on a continuous medium such as continuous recording paper (continuous paper), for example, by electrophotography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a printing process station for a continuous paper printer (continuous medium printing apparatus) which adopts electrophotography includes a photosensitive drum (image forming drum) capable of forming a print image on continuous paper (which may be hereinafter referred to merely as paper) while rotating in a printing transporting direction of the continuous paper, and several apparatus (for example, a precharger, an exposure unit, a development unit, a transfer charger, an AC discharger, a cleaning unit, an LED discharger and so forth) disposed around the photosensitive drum for performing various processes such as charging, discharging, exposure, development and cleaning.
In order to load such continuous paper as described above into the continuous paper printer, an operator will first set a leading end of the continuous paper to a suitable position on a paper transport path and then render an automatic loading mechanism (automatic paper setting mechanism) operative. Consequently, the continuous paper is automatically loaded into the continuous paper printer and set to a printable state by the automatic loading mechanism.
Upon such loading, the automatic loading mechanism makes use of a transporting force of paper transport tractors provided forwardly and backwardly of a transfer region (printing process station mentioned above) to transport the continuous paper to pass through the transfer region and then through a fixing station to a stacker under the guidance of transfer guides and other guide members. The continuous paper has feed holes formed successively in an equally separated relationship from each other along the opposite sides thereof for engaging with the paper transport tractors of the continuous paper printer so that the continuous paper may be transported by the paper transport tractors.
Upon printing, the photosensitive drum is rotated in a predetermined direction and the surface thereof is charged uniformly by the precharger. Then, the surface of the photosensitive drum is exposed to light by the exposure unit to form an electrostatic latent image of a pattern corresponding to printing information from a host apparatus on the surface of the photosensitive drum. The electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by the development unit.
Meanwhile, the continuous paper is transported from a hopper to a transfer position under the guidance of various guides by a paper transport mechanism such as a tractor. At the transfer position, the toner image on the photosensitive drum is transferred to the continuous paper by the transfer charger disposed in an opposing relationship to the photosensitive drum across the continuous paper.
Thereafter, the toner image transferred to the continuous paper is fixed to the continuous paper by heat, a pressure or light applied thereto by the fixing station, and is then sent out to the stacker or else is subject to post-processing by a post-processing apparatus such as a cutter apparatus.
The surface of the photosensitive drum after the transfer step has toner powder remaining thereon without having been transferred to the continuous paper, and the remaining toner powder must be removed from the photosensitive drum. Therefore, the charge of the remaining toner powder is removed by the AC discharger, and then the remaining toner powder is removed mechanically from the surface of the photosensitive drum by the cleaning unit. Usually, a cleaning blade or a cleaning brush is frequently used as the mechanical removing means.
After the remaining toner powder is removed from the photosensitive drum in this manner, optical discharge is performed by the LED discharge in order to return the potential on the surface of the photosensitive drum to its initial state (0 V). Then, in preparation for the next transfer step, the surface of the photosensitive drum is charged uniformly by the precharger again.
In a printer which prints on continuous paper as described above, the continuous paper after printed is either taken up onto and accommodated as a roll, or folded and accommodated in a stacker.
Continuous paper used for the latter case has portions called perforations formed at fixed intervals therein so that the continuous paper may be folded at the perforations thereof. In this instance, in order to fold and accommodate the continuous paper with certainty into the stacker, when the continuous paper is set to the continuous paper printer, a fold position (perforation position) of the continuous paper must be arranged at a correct position in accordance with the folding length of the continuous paper, that is, in accordance with the distance between adjacent perforations. It is to be noted that, in the present specification, the term “perforation” is used to signify a large number of very small holes perforated in a continuous printing medium in a row or line perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the continuous printing medium (in which the continuous printing medium is transported) in order to facilitate folding of the continuous printing medium along the line(refer to perforation
1
c
in any of
FIGS. 13
to
16
and
22
).
In order to perform such positioning of a perforation, a continuous paper setting section (continuous medium mounting section) of a continuous paper printer is conventionally constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG.
22
.
In particular, a tractor mechanism (paper transport tractor)
73
for a continuous paper printer is constructed such that continuous paper
1
is set into it while it is held by a pair of paper holders
731
and
732
from the opposite sides thereof. Each of the paper holders
731
and
732
has graduations (stickers)
351
provided thereon each of which indicates a position at which the continuous paper
1
is to be set as an arrangement position for a perforation
1
c
. The graduations
351
of the two paper holders
731
and
732
indicate the same positions as each other.
Each of the graduations
351
of the paper holder
731
has numerical value information (stickers)
361
′ provided therefor which indicates the distances (paper fold lengths) between adjacent perforations
1
c
of different continuous papers to be set to the positions of the graduations
351
. It is to be noted that, in
FIG. 22
, each of the particular numerical values “9”, “10”, . . . , “14” provided for the graduations :
351
represents the distance (unit: inch) between adjacent perforations
1
c
which is different depending upon the type of the continuous paper
1
.
When an operator tries to set the continuous paper
1
to the printer, the operator recognizes the distance (paper fold length) between perforations
1
c
of the continuous paper
1
and sets the continuous paper
1
so that the position of one of the graduations
351
to which the numerical value information
361
′ corresponding to the distance is provided and the position of a perforation
1
c
may coincide with each other. In particular, in order to set the continuous paper
1
which has perforations
1
c
the distance between which is, for example, 10 inches, the position of a perforation
1
c
of the continuous paper
1
is brought into coincident with the position of that one of the graduations
351
to which “10” is added as the numerical value information
361
′.
Conventionally, as a method of printing on both faces of continuous paper, a method is available wherein two such continuous paper printers (single-sided printers) as described above are connected to each other such that the front face (or back face) of the continuous paper is printed by the first one of the continuous paper printers first and then, after the continuous paper is twisted so as to be revered, the back face (or front face) of the continuous paper is printed b

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